The Brother MFC-J4620DW ($179.99) offers one notable feature for a light-duty inkjet multifunction printer (MFP) at its price: the ability to print at up to tabloid (11-by-17) size. The caveat? You have to do it manually, by feeding it one sheet at a time. The MFC-J4620DW has a nice range of connectivity choices, including Wi-Fi Direct and NFC, making it a good choice for printing from mobile devices.

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It shares its tabloid printing ability and many other features with other printers in Brother's Business Smart Series, which has spawned several Editors' Choice models, including the Brother MFC-J4410DW, the Brother MFC-J4510DW, and the Brother MFC-J4610DW. They are minor variations on the same theme. For example, the Brother MFC-J4610 has a 400-sheet paper capacity, while the others have a 150-sheet capacity, and the Brother MFC-J4610 and the MFC-J4510 have a 3.7-inch color touch screen, while the other two MFPs have smaller 1.8-inch screens.

The MFC-J4620DW can print, copy, scan, and fax. It can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a computer, including over a network. It can work as a standalone copier and fax machine and can print directly from a PictBridge camera. It can also print from and scan to a memory card or USB memory key. It will also let you preview files on a memory card or USB key before printing, using its 3.7-inch color touch screen.

It measures just 7.4 by 18.9 by 11.4 inches (HWD), very compact for an MFP that can print at up to tabloid size, and weighs 20.6 pounds. Paper capacity is 150 sheets, plus a one-page manual feed slot which, like other printers we've reviewed in the series, can accept up to tabloid-size paper. It has an auto-duplexer for two-sided printing. As with other Brother Business Smart printers, the paper is loaded in landscape orientation. That makes it wider than, but not as deep as, many printers.

For scanning, the MFC-J4620DW has a 20-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF). Both the paper tray and the ADF are modest in capacity, making this model best for home-office or micro-office use, or as a personal printer in any size office.

It connects to a PC via a USB cable, or to a network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. It also supports Wi-Fi Direct, which allows for direct printing from compatible devices without the need to go through an access point. It offers "touch-to-print" printing and scanning from NFC-capable devices. It's compatible with Apple AirPrint, Brother iPrint&Scan, Google Cloud Print, and Cortado WorkPlace for printing from smartphones and tablets. I tested it over an Ethernet connection, with the drivers installed on a computer running Windows Vista.

Print Speed
I timed the MFC-J4620DW at 3 pages per minute (ppm) on our business applications suite (as timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software). That's a bit slower than the Brother MFC-J4510DW, which we tested at 3.3ppm, and the Brother MFC-J4410DW, which we timed at 3.7ppm. It was considerably slower than two other Editors' Choice models, the Epson WorkForce WF-3640 and the Brother MFC-J4610DW, which zipped through our testing at 5.4ppm and 5.6ppm, respectively.

Output Quality
Overall output quality for the MFC-J4620DW is a touch the average for MFPs of this ilk. Text quality is also slightly below par, but still good enough for business uses other than ones that require very small fonts. Photo quality is average for an inkjet, with prints being more or less at drugstore quality.

Graphics quality is below what's expected for an MFP in this category. Many of the illustrations showed moderate banding, a regular pattern of striations. Many backgrounds looked somewhat faded. Some graphics showed dithering in the form of dot patterns. Thin-colored lines tended to show poorly, if at all. The graphics are okay for most internal business use, but short of what I would use for formal reports or PowerPoint handouts.

If you don't require tabloid-size printing, a conventional MFP geared to a home office or micro office may give you more bang for the buck. For example, the Editors' Choice Epson WorkForce WF-3640 brings much better speed, more than three times the paper capacity, and duplex scanning to the mix, but it lacks the MFC-J4620DW's capability to print from NFC-enabled mobile devices.

Tabloid Printers, Large and Small
If you do a lot of tabloid-size printing, you'll want to invest in a printer with a paper tray that can fit that size, such as the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-J6920DW, which can hold up to 500 sheets of 11-by-17-inch paper between its two trays. Of course, it's also more expensive, and it's a larger machine.

For light-duty printing with the occasional need to print tabloid-size documents, the Brother MFC-J4620DW is a more appropriate and economical choice. It offers printing from NFC-enabled mobile devices, which the other, older Business Smart models lack. It brings the luxury of a 3.7-inch touch screen, which you'll also find in the Editors' Choice MFC-J4510DW, a very similar model.

In our testing, the MFC-J4620DW was a bit slower than the MFC-J4510DW and other Business Smart printers we've reviewed, but its speed is still in the acceptable range for its price. We'd have liked to have seen better graphics quality from it. Still, it packs in a lot of good features for a home-office or micro-office MFP for light-duty use, such as being able to print from and scan to both memory cards and USB thumb drives. It's a good choice if you can use its NFC capabilities for printing from mobile devices.

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As Analyst for printers, scanners, and projectors, Tony Hoffman tests and reviews these products and provides news coverage for these categories. Tony has worked at PC Magazine since 2004, first as a Staff Editor, then as Reviews Editor, and more recently as Managing Editor for the printers, scanners, and projectors team.
In addition to editing, Tony has written articles on digital photography and reviews of digital cameras, PCs, and iPhone apps
Prior to joining the PCMag team, Tony worked for 17 years in magazine and journal...
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